REPORTED ACTION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 251, 5 August 1941, Page 5

REPORTED ACTION

BRITAIN TAKES PRECAUTIONS. FORCES ON THAILAND BORDER. • • ./ ;. . '•. i' • • __ _ . •> AUSTRALIANS AND INDIANS. (United Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, Aug. 4. The Saigon correspondent'of the Associated Press of Great Britain says Britain has placed thousands of her finest troops, mainly Australians and the best Indian regiments, on the border of Malaya and Thailand in expectation of trouble with the Japanese. They are fully equipped, not only with tanks and heavy artillery, hut also,with secret weapons, specially designed for jungle warfare. Everywhere along the border are British forces, including members of the Royal Air Force. The British are preparing accommodation for thousands ,of additional Australian infantrymen. ' "Well-informed circles in Bangkok assert that Japan is demanding bases in Thailand and access to raw materials.

In the meantime, the Thai armies are pouring into the border zones. British sources say that although there is no evidence of direct demands by Japan on Thailand, the position is being watched, as there is ample evidence of Japan’s intentions. ' A Japanese report from Saigon says that the final delimitation of the Thailand - Indo-China border will bo made next month.

Military observers in Shanghai regard the garrisoning of 40,000 Japanese troops and 400 planes in southern Indo-China as too large for purposes other than expansion. From Saigon it is reported that ViceAdmiral Niimi has arrived from Japan to confer with French military and naval officials. Thousands of additional Japanese troops have arrived, and also large stocks of munitions and gasoline. Japan appears to be intensifying the war in China, for widespread bombing raids have been carried out on Hankow in the Hupeh Province and on towns in the Honan Province,. where tons of bombs have been dropped, r The Japanese claim to have confiscated 140 ships along the North China coast and in the mouth of the Yangtse river, , -‘i • t”\

, The United States Embassy in ping has protested to the Japanese Embassy at what are described as pinpricking annoyances practised by the Japanese against both British and United States subjects. These include re-, fusal to deliver registered luggage, interference with postal matter and the picketing of factories in Peiping, Tsiugbao and other places. None of these annoyances has anything to do with the freezing of Jap-

anese assets, it- is explained, hut is only an intensification of the display of Japanese bad teniper which has been felt by British and American subjects off and on for three, years.

The medical services in Batavia are vaccinating the population .in Batavia against cholera, typhoid, and dysentery as a precaution against epidemics in case of war. ,

BRITAIN DENIES REPORT.

NO TROOPS SENT TO FRONTIER. CAREFUL WATCH ON EVENTS' (Rec. 10.35 a.m.) LONDON,. Aug. 4. Reports thqt Britain is seeking to obtain, naval and air bases in Thailand and that she has sent 100,000 troops to the Burma-Thailand border have been. > authoritatively denied! in' where it is recalled that reports of a similar equally unfounded nature were set in circulation Concerning British intentions in relations to French IndoChina. The position of Thailand is accordingly being watched carefully in London and with some concern, hut the various expressions of the -Thai Government’s determination to preserve its independence and integrity have been noted with satisfaction., BRITISH NAVAL SQUADRON. REPORTED IN GULF OF SIAM..

(Roc. 10 a.m.) SAIGON, August 4. Unofficial reports, regarding which the Associated Press of America’s correspondent is unable to obtain confirmation, state that a British naval fJquadron„ including! Vtlie battleship Warspite, has been sighted in the Gulf, ot Siam.

AUSTRALIAN’S ATTITUDE.

CALMNESS AND DETERMINATION.

(Roc. 10.5 a.m.) SYDNEY. This Day. The Minister of War (Mr Spender), reviewing the international situation, declared that Australia had the equivalent of five to six divisions at overseas battle stations and all had been, transported without loss of life. Mr Spender said that the Commonwealth looked forward to rising tension in the Far East with calm and determined eyes. “We have never sought! to disturb the peace in the Pacific,” he said. “On the’contrary we have tried to preserve it.” The sharp decisive economic preliminary steps taken by the British Commonwealth and the jUtilted' States had surprised Japan but the indications were that Japan was contemplating further action. Britain haa no designs on Indo-China and a similar declaration by Japan would bq welcomed.